What a Difference a Year Makes
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 950b: As their senior prom approaches, Santana wants to do right by Brittany and give her what she couldn't one year ago.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 45th cycle. Now cycle 46!_

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_**INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - **If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 45 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**! (cycle 46 cheat sheet will be up later)_

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_**This is a shift day [see above].** There was another upload this morning: You'll Find Wonder, chapter 23._

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**"What a Difference a Year Makes"  
Santana/Brittany**

_(day 5 of 7 in Jade's awesome birthday week! :))_**  
**

She'd been thinking about the best way to do it, the best time… They were cutting it pretty close and it wasn't like she thought Brittany wouldn't have already assumed they were going together, but Santana wanted to do this for her, because after everything they had been through, now this was something they could have. Now her dearest president of a girlfriend was busy wrangling her committee into setting up her dinosaur-themed prom, and her mind was firing faster than what the unsuspecting committee could have imagined.

She found her in the gym, standing before a pack of complaining Cheerios holding… giant dinosaur heads?

"It smells in there, and it's heavy, and I can't see, I'm not doing it," one of them shook her head.

"Like you haven't done worse in those conditions," Santana intervened before Brittany could speak.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the girl with the dinosaur head frowned.

"Nothing, nothing at all," Santana smiled overly sweet before turning to the blonde with the clipboard. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" Brittany opened her mouth to reply just as the disgruntled cheerleader tossed the dinosaur head to roll at her feet. Brittany picked it up.

"I don't see why you have to complain, it's just lazy," she frowned, hoisting up the head to put it over her own. "Okay, it does stink. But the dinosaurs didn't have air fresheners in their heads and neither will we," she pointed her finger at the girl, showing that, yes, they could see fine. The giant dinosaur head turned to Santana. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I…" Santana paused, smirked. "You want to take that off, first?"

"Why?" Brittany posed, hands to her hips.

"Because I'd really like to see your face for this," she explained. Brittany pulled the head off, huffing at the hair which had fallen in her face.

"Here," she rolled the head back to the cheerleader. "Go walk around, heads on, and embrace the dinosaur," she nodded to all the girls, who grumbled but did as told. "Okay, what's up?" she looked back to Santana, who smiled on, feeling a slight tremor in her… She hadn't thought she'd be this nervous, but then there was always at least some level of nervousness involved when staring into those blue eyes.

"There's something I need to ask you. I should have done it last year, but I didn't, and I want to fix that," she explained, further disarmed by the smile Brittany gave her.

"Okay," she waited.

"Will you, Brittany, go to prom with me?" Santana kept it simple and to the point.

"I thought I was," the blonde frowned, confused.

"No, I know, but I still wanted to ask, officially," she explained, and Brittany beamed. "So, will you?" Brittany made to think.

"Yeah, I think I can," she spoke, grinning. Santana laughed.

"You can, can you?" she stepped up to put her arms around her, getting a chuckle and a kiss in reply. "Have you gone for your dress yet?"

"It's not bad if you see it before prom? You know, like at weddings?"

"I saw your dress last year, remember?" Santana couldn't not smile.

"Yeah but we weren't together back then," Brittany pointed out.

"I think we can risk it," Santana nodded. "How about we go this afternoon?"

Once they had left school, Santana having to drag Brittany away from prom coordinating duties, they had gone to the mall. As Santana would say time and again, this was their senior prom, and they would do it in style. First they had looked for Brittany's outfit.

"Should I wear a tuxedo or something?"

"Why would you do that?" Santana frowned.

"Well I'm nominated for prom king, aren't I?"

"Yeah, so? Doesn't mean you have to wear pants. I'd kind of prefer it if you didn't, actually." She could see an idea flash across the blonde's face.

"Okay then I won't," she tugged Santana's arm to take her to sit down.

"Wait, what does that mean?" she asked as she watched her girlfriend saunter away giddily. "Brittany? What are you doing? You can't go around school bottomless, we talked about this!" she called after her, then retreated when she saw people staring at her. "What?" she glared at them.

As she waited, her eyes did wander about, looking at the dresses on racks, on display… One caught her eye and she got up to go look at it closer. She could already tell the color would fit her perfectly, as it usually did, but sometimes that wasn't enough. She pulled it free, felt the fabric, held it before herself. She could definitely see herself in something like this, she…

"Santana, sit back down!" She startled, looking back.

"Britt?" She couldn't see her, had she imagined it, or… "Where are you?"

"In here," her voice came again, though that didn't help much.

"Where's here?" she looked to the cabin doors, guessing that would be it, and she saw her shoes from under. "When did you get in there?" she put the dress back and went to sit as told.

"I don't know, two minutes?" She could see her moving about, the Cheerio skirt on the ground already, so she'd be changing. Knowing her, whatever she'd have found would be something she felt strongly about, but this was usually a good sign. No matter what, the girl couldn't be blamed on her sense of style.

"Just make sure you're not banned from the gym for improper attire," Santana begged, just as the door opened and out she came, and now Santana smiled.

"See? Prom king," she motioned from her waist up, to the blouse and the jacket and untied bowtie. "Girlfriend," she motioned from her waist down, fanning out the skirt by tugging up at the side. "Finishing touch," she pulled a medium sized top hat from behind her back, flipped it elegantly on top of her head. "What do you think?" she asked, beaming that smile of hers.

"It's bigger than last year's," Santana nodded to the hat, and Brittany went on smiling. "Like the bow tie."

"Do you know how? I tried and I couldn't…" she admitted. Santana stood, motioning for her to step forward. She straightened up the tie under her collar, reaching then to tie it.

"Chin up," she instructed, and Brittany did as told. "There," she smiled when she was done. "Now you're perfect," she gave a final nudge, hypnotized by the happy little look on her girlfriend's face upon hearing the compliment.

"Now you," she told her, touching to the bowtie around her neck. She'd been absentmindedly shopping for this dress for months, it seemed. Any time a catalog came into her hands, or she'd end up on a site, or she passed windows… It wasn't until that day that she felt a real, definite pull toward one, so she guessed maybe it meant she just had to wait for the right moment, here and now with Brittany.

"Okay, just give me a minute," she indicated for her to sit, while she went and retrieved the dress she'd been looking at before. She disappeared into the changing room, kicked off her sneakers and added her own Cheerios uniform to Brittany's on the ground. She reached up and undid her ponytail, shaking her hair out. It wouldn't have looked right with the dress. She slipped it on, carefully straightening out the parts that had fallen out of place. She took a step back, looking in the mirror. Just as she'd thought; this was what she had been looking for all along… appropriate for the situation.

"Are you ready yet?" she heard Brittany call out. Rather than replying, she opened the door, and stepped out. Brittany's eyes fixed on her and she all but scrambled to get on her feet, which made Santana chuckle. "You look beautiful," was all she could say.

"Hey, a girl's gotta look good for her girl," she shrugged innocently.

"You do," Brittany persisted, and Santana hoped the redness of her dress would cover the one in her cheeks. She came to stand next to her 'prom king girlfriend,' the better to see their combined reflections in the mirror. "It really is going to be the best prom ever," she spoke, hushed.

Santana looked at her, the girl she loved, and she honestly couldn't wait for prom. One year ago, she had wanted this, just this, just her and Brittany out there, but she hadn't been ready. This was their year though, no more fear. She slipped her hand in hers, and the blue eyes were on her again.

"Best prom ever," she repeated, promised. Brittany smiled.

"We should change back now."

"Why?" Santana asked.

"Because I'm looking at you right now and I want to do things, but we should wait… you know, after prom," she bowed her head and Santana inhaled; she was right on that.

"Yeah, let's do that," they turned both of them toward the changing room, the same they had each used, and then she stopped. "You first."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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